chicago, part 2

walking from the car to wolfbait. has anyone ever been in wolfbait? they're full of hand-crafted goodness: clothes, purses, jewelry and artwork of all kinds. some pretty cool stuff.

chicago, part 1

i shot over 100 photos in chicago on saturday. so i'm going to break 'em up like i did louisville.

apparently i make people nervous when i stick my hand out the window at 70mph to take a photo. i had the camera strap wrapped around my wrist ... it was safe. regardless, these are driving from paper source to logan square.

update: the great 28

two months into the goals. how am i doing?

1. visit 3 places i've never been before. i visited mel & dan's new house a few weeks ago. yay me!

2. lose 40 pounds. i was down 9.5 pounds at my last weigh in. hey! i never told you guys what came in the fed ex box! i ordered myself an ipod in celebration of hitting the 50 pound mark. they offer free engraving, so the back says "fifty3 and counting". again, yay me! :)

3. havbe a booth at a local craft fair. we might do a booth in july at the crown point jazz festival. we will definitely do one at the popcorn fest. we just need to sign up ... and make all the goodies. :)

4. take 2000 photos. i'm at 581. that's 29% to goal!

5. eat a gallon of mustard in one week. i haven't scheduled this yet.

6. enter 3 items in the county fair. i got my entry form in the mail this week. i can't enter anything until june 11 (that's what the fair office opens), but i want to have everything decided & ready to go for that day.

7. finish 3 quilts. i've got one done already. and i'm about halfway done with the squares for a second one.

8. take an art class. nothing scheduled, yet.

9. be able to play Christmas Rhapsody on the piano by Christmas. yeah, i should sit down & start working on this.

10. be able to play a song on my accordian. again, i should start working on this.

11. bake something new once a month. my march baking will be this thursday evening for friday's game night. i don't know what i'm going to make though ... and suggestions? laure sent me a recipe for black-pepper cookies that i think sound really good.

12. update my portfolio. haven't touched it, but i have been good about brining pieces home to add to it.

13. make my halloween costume. i have some ideas. but you'll have to wait & see.

14. cook dinner once a month. in january i made green pork burritos with cilantro rice & black beans. february was baked macaroni & cheese (patti labelle's recipe). march was pretzel chicken & homemade potato chips for girls night.

15. redesign my online portfolio. again, haven't touched it.

16. hang out with old friends. yay for bunco! i still need to send a card to marisa. but i have gotten in touch with dave recently (hi, dave!) and i talked to nick today, too. yay!

17. learn to use my screen printing supplies. i may set aside a weekend to do this.

18. catch up my thumbnails. i bought ink for my printer this weekend, so i should start printing those out ... now.

19. read 3 new books. i did a thorough skimming of bob greene's total body make over, does that count?

20. eat breakfast at lynn's paradise cafe. yumm-o! ya'll missed some great crunchcakes a few weeks ago. :)

21. finish bob greene's total body make over. i've kinda dropped the strength training part of the program, but i'm still doing well with the cardio & the core exercises. i'm on week 9 right now, and habits are forming pretty strong. however, the exciting news is how it affected my metabolism. consistent exercise should boost your resting metabolism - bob greene says so. well, i went in for my yearly med check right before my birthday. my doctor raised my synthroid (if you didn't know, i had a tumor when i was 17. they hacked out the left side of my thyroid, so now i take meds every day to replace the thyroid juice, which regulates metabolism.) from 200mcg to 250mcg, which ticked me off because i don't like taking the meds to begin with ... and i really didn't like it being raised. but if it needed it, whatever. so a week later, i started the make over. and 6 weeks after that i went back to have my meds rechecked - and she lowered it to 175mcg! less than it was at my yearly check up! yay! so i go back in another 6 weeks to check it again, but that made me really happy. nothing like a little natural medication from exercise. :)

22. take a trip by myself. this was originally going to be the drive from portland to san francisco. now i'm looking to not spend that kind of money, so it will probably be something much smaller. but all i need is a great airfare to fort meyers & i'll totally spend a weekend in sanibel.

23. finish the plastic purse. so you know those polybags we deliver your paper in when it's snowy & rainy out? we use a lot of blue ones, sometimes they're clear. anyway, i'm taking those bags & cutting them into 1" rings (approximately. i'm not measuring it at all.) and then looping those rings together & crocheting them into a puse. i'm only using the blue ones, at least for now. i may put a brown stripe in the middle with some wilco bags if i can find brown ones. so if you get your paper in a blue polybag & want to help me reach my goal, save 'em for me. :)

24. files my taxes early. DONE!

25. work on a scrapbook. i may finish the san francisco book i started, honestly, at least 7 years ago. or i may work on one for the california road trip last summer. i'm not a big scrapbooker ... but i like the freedom to design with my photos. some of those california photos should be seen larger than 4"x6" in a photo album.

26. send Christmas cards. no pressure for them to be handmade, but i want to send out cards.

27. homemade Christmas presents. this is just a space filler, really. i know i'll make the Christmas presents. i even have a little bit of an idea of what they'll all be. but there's nothing wrong with setting a goal i KNOW i'll achieve, right? :)

28. secret. this one is fabulously exciting, but i can't tell you about it. yet.

lego tower

this one's for joe. he bought me 99.9% of the blue legos you see in this photo.

i worked with a high school youth group a few years back, and we had a new year's eve lock in at the church. so two groups of us decided to see who could build the taller tower. you can see the competiting tower on the right - ours was clearly the winner. it didn't support itself as well as it could have (it was a little wobbly), but it reached the ceiling in the church foyer. i don't know how tall that is - but i'm 5'10", so you can kinda gauge by that. regardless of the exact measurement, you can tell i was very impressed at the height of our tower. :)

bah

i know i'm overly frustrated when i actually yell, out loud, at my internet connection. it can't hear me.

walking downtown

the chandelier is actually an outdoor piece at proof on main, but i left it out of yesterday's photos. the carter dry goods building is now the science museum, and i think the very top of the building looks like a large-breasted peacock. i bet you could broast those breasts & serve 'em at a truck stop if you wanted. :) and the last one is a garbage can - fancy, eh?

proof on main

proof on main is a restaurant, bar, hotel and 24/7 art gallery. how could we pass that up? the gallery was larger than i was expecting - they had some really interesting works. at the hotel elevators was "text rain". seen in the first two photos, "text rain" is an interactive display where the viewer's image is mirrored on a screen, and letters fall down the screen, landing along the edges of your body. if you get a line across the whole screen & hold still long enough, a full sentence forms. it was great fun. i want one for my house. :)

other exhibits included a large umbrella, puffs of cloud rings, a hairy deer, a refrigerated boat frame, a peacock made of a feather duster & pipe cleaners, mildly disturbing photos of young boys in tree houses and a small army of red penguins. the penguins were quite photogenic, i think.

driving to proof on main

20. eat breakfast at lynn's

if you've never eaten at lynn's paradise cafe, i highly recommend you do so. it's a quirky li'l place with excellent food. you want to try the crunchcakes - well, unless you're allergic to nuts, sorry april - they're fabulous. yummy pancakes with lynn's home made granola mixed in & on top. yumm-o. i had them add blueberries to mine.

horses on a table

i'm heading into work early, but wanted to give you something at which to look. :) more in this series will come in the "breakfast at lynn's" post.

more about the fed ex package tomorrow. it was at my desk by 10am yesterday. yay! it's very exciting, but for now i'm off to work. have a great day!

gold star for fed ex

since i ranted about the annoyance that is the ups tracking system it seems only fair that i share my happiness with fed ex's tracking system. it's up to date. it's informative. and it says my package is less than 45 minutes from my office right now! yay! i don't know if it made it in time to get on a delivery truck for today - but i wouldn't be surprised to see if show up on my desk this afternoon. that's right - it left china yesterday at lunch time & right now it's sitting less than 45 minutes from the point of delivery. fabulous!

driving to lynn's after church

i know - it's been all photos and no talking. so here's the low down. louisville was fabulous, very good for me. as you've seen, mel & dan have a very nice home - and their loving, giving personalities make it very comfortable for visitors. i got there friday evening. mel & i were up until 4am catching up and (i can't believe i'm saying this) poking around on myspace. what has the world come to? :) saturday we spent time at her mom's lake house & then went to zappo's shoe outlet. mel found a pair, i did not. then we met up with dan (who had to work all day), watched a movie & a little of mythbusters and then went to ditto's for dinner. crab quesadillas ... yumm-o. another late night, but for the time we had it was worth it. sunday after church we went to lynn's paradise cafe. but more about that when i post those photos. :)

driving to dittos

the place with no shoes

1. visit 3 places i've never been before

drive to louisville

beads, beads, beads

this is the bracelet i made this past monday at bead night. i bead with three other gals - april, kathy and becca. so when i say things fit becca better than they fit me, it's because becca (the other becca) is smaller than i am. so no, i'm not crazy & talking about myself in the third person - there are two of us. although, we actually think we might be a little bit of the same person because we knew a lot of the same people in high school. we didn't meet each other though until she started working with me.



this is a bracelet i made awhile ago, but i don't think i ever shared. it's a three strand bracelet that i'm really tempted to keep. :)



and this is a set i made a few weeks ago. also temped to keep it, just because i love the green beads. they might be jasper? or a variety of jade? or ... something? i should probably pay more attention to what i'm buying at the bead store.

5 questions

5 questions to start your thursday:

1. do you want to go to work more or less today than you did yesterday? i think i might actually want to go to work more today than i did yesterday. not because i WANT to go to work, but because i REALLY didn't want to go to work yesterday. and i definitely want to go to work today more than i'll want to go tomorrow.

2. if you could come home to any romantic surprise tonight, what would it be? someone could totally send me those chocolate-covered gummi bears i mentioned. :) maybe not romantic, but i'll take what i can get.

3. what one word would you use to describe a tree? leafy.

4. if you could see one person out of the ordinary today, who would you pick? jessica.

5. what's in your lunch bag? leftover chicken & noodles, an orange and some goldfish crackers for afternoon snacking.

bah

so here's the now famous box from ups. it contains a beautiful new wiremac21. what's a wiremac 21? it's a machine for punching holes along the edges of paper & then inserting/closing wire binding into those pages. basically, homemade journals for everyone. this really does excite me to no end. and it punches the holes in the paper beautifully, as sort of seen in this photo ...



my frustration is in doing the covers. i plan to use vinyl records for the covers. and it's driving me nuts. the machine isn't strong enough to simply cut holes in the records, which i expected and that's fine. so i used my drill to make the holes. that worked well enough for the little pilot holes. but when i was doing the full-sized holes, it went all wonky & did this ...



this is obviously not acceptable. but it only did it on one of the two records i was drilling. and i had them clamped together, hoping to drill one set of holes through both records. so i thought that could've been the problem & finished the one record by itself. it worked better, but the holes aren't quite the right size and the very last hole on the record caused a little split down to the bottom corner. so i decided to start with a new record. cut it down to size & using one of the punched pages, i marked where the holes should be. so then i think, if i score along the edges of the holes maybe the machine could get the rest of the way through.

i'm not sure if it can or not yet. i mean, i think it can. it did, actually, on the test. but when i put the real cover piece in, it totally chewed it up ...



bah. i quit.

and in an unrelated disappointment, my camera was totally convinced that last photo was in focus when i shot it. stupid auto focus.

so far in 07

So far in 2007 ...

1. Have you had a gf/bf?: no, but i did just learn erin has a crush on me, so there's hope!

2. Have you had your birthday?: yes. january 24.

3. Been to church? no, but i'm sure that will change this weekend.

4. Cried?: yes.

5. Had someone close to you pass away?: no.

7. Drank starbucks?: no.

8. Gone shopping?: yeah ...

9. Gone to the movies?: nope. last time i was at the theater was for 'little miss sunshine' in september.

10. Been to the beach? nope.

11. Bought something for over $200?: yes! it came in a ups box. :)

12. Met someone new?: yes, i've met bethany.

13. Been out of your home state?: i don't think so. but this weekend i'll be in louisville. YAY!

15. Gone snowboarding?: nope.

16. Kissed someone?: yup.

17. Slept in someone else's bed?: nope.

18. Snuck someone over?: this is a question that points out this was written for younger folks.

19. Snuck out of your own house?: again, written for younger folks.

20. Been in a bar?: nope.

21 Lied?: probably.

22. Gotten a car?: nope.

23. Gone over your cell phone bill?: no. i don't really use my cell phone too much.

24. Drove somewhere?: again, written for younger folks.

25. Done something you regret?: probably, but nothing so major it sticks out in my head. i've got more decisions made that i'm glad about so far in 2007.

chocolate covered gummi bears

i can't stress to you enough how much i LOVE chocolate-covered gummi bears. april understands my obsession with them and brought me some last weeked. the six in the picture are all that are left. (well, actually there are only three left now. i've got a cherry one in my mouth as i type. mmmm.) they're how i'm choosing to spend my last 200 calories today.

now you can get chocolate-covered gummy bears at just about any self-respecting candy shoppe. but the BEST chocolate-covered gummi bears come from albanese, a local confectionery. unfortunately they don't let you buy the chocolate-covered gummi bear goodness online. however, they do offer a telephone number, so you could call (219) 738-2333 and they'd take your order over the phone. just let me know if you need my address - home or work - so you make sure to send them to the right place.

you'll notice i didn't post this on the workout party blog. that wouldn't be nice of me at all. :)

and at first i thought that funny blob was chocolate-covered gummi poo, but after tasting it, i think it was a peach head that had been severed from its body. yummy chocolate-covered severed peach gummi head.

another survey

1. Who is the next person you'll hold hands with? my niece, i suppose.

2. Do you sleep with the TV on? no. if the tv's on i feel obligated to watch it. and if i'm watching tv i can't be asleep.

3. Have you ever drank alcohol straight from the bottle? no.

4. Do you think you're old? no.

5. Are you afraid of the dark? sometimes i'll come back into my bedroom after getting up in the middle of the night, and i'll have to turn on my lights just to make sure no one's hiding in the darkness.

6. Do you like your life right now? yes, most of the time.

7. When's the last time you chose a bath over a shower? a long time ago. i'm not a real bath person. i just feel like i'm sitting in my own filth.

8. Do you knock on wood? not really. i mean, if someone's front door is made of wood ...

9. Do you have good vision? no. my glasses are a must.

10. Can you hula hoop? i really doubt it.

11. Could you ever forgive a cheater? i think that would be really hard.

12. Do you have a job? yup.

13. Are you friends with your ex? yes, thankfully.

14. What are you wearing? a green striped sock, a green argyle sock, blue pants with paint all over them, my purple "salevivor" shirt with paint all over it & the necesssary under clothing.

15. Have you ever been suspended or expelled from school? nope.

16. Have you ever crawled through a window? yeah, i totally locked myself out of the anderson's house one day when i dogsitting.

18. Can you handle the truth? sometimes i handle it better than others.

19. Buy anything lately? i got a new pair of jeans this weekend (which i need to go throw in the laundry) and a red shirt with a CUTE cami for underneath. oh ... i bought some silver jump rings & silver chain at jo-ann's this evening, too. not as exciting as the clothes though.

20. Are you listening to music? not yet. but good idea. how about a little ticklepenny corner?

21. How many hours are you usually on MySpace? none. i'm not a myspacer.

22. How often do you talk on the phone? fairly often at work. very rarely at home. i'm not a phone person.

23. Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend? nope.

24. Is there something you want that you can't have? sure, refer the last question. :) seriously, doesn't everyone want some little something that they can't have? right now i really want the rest of my chocolate-covered gummy bears, but it's too late for me to eat them.

25. Are you in a complicated relationship? yes.

26. Do you hate more than 3 people? no.

27. Have you ever tripped someone? i don't think so.

28. Name one thing that is always on your mind: i'm with bethany - i've always got a lot of things on my mind. i'm getting back into the habit of turning those thought-fests into prayer times.

30. What time were you born? early afternoon, i think.

31. Do you like beer? i haven't enjoyed my past experience with it, no.

32. Have you made a prank phone call? of course! fifi's house of underwear calling - your crotchless/edible/whatever panties are in!

33. Are you sarcastic? no.

34. Have you ever slapped someone? i don't think so.

35. Do looks matter? sometimes. i mean, i'm not gonna buy the bruised apple or the moldy oranges.

36. Do you use chapstick? yes.

37. Are you too forgiving? i don't think we can be TOO forgiving. we may be too willing to put ourselves back into bad situations, but forgiving can't be done too much.

38. Do you own something from Hot Topic? i believe the gift i got from my secret santa was from hot topic. so yes - i have a johnny depp shirt & a johnny depp daily planner. oh! and a grow-your-own pirate! yarr!

39. Do you own a gun? just the plastic one that goes with my pirate costume.

40. Ever thought you were in love? yes.

41. When was the last time you cried? two nights ago, but it didn't last long.

42. Olive Garden? has yummy food.

43. Have you ever been to a castle? no.

44. Are you thinking about someone? yes.

45. Do you like your hair? mostly. i think i may go curly next time.

46. Does anyone have a crush on you? i seriously doubt it.

47. Do you like yourself? usually, yes. i'm very insecure, but i usually do like myself i'm just not good as projecting that image.

48. Are you closer to your mother or father? my mother.

49. Have you ever stripped? every morning before i get into the shower.

50. Are you religious? no, i suppose not.

51. Do you chat on AIM often? no, but i've been thinking about it lately. sometimes it's nice to chat with someone instead of sending e-mails.

52. Have you ever broken someone’s heart? i seriously doubt this, too. not because i'm a good person, but just because i've never been in the situation. i link breaking someone's heart with ending a relationship or not reciprocating someone's desire for a relationship. in those terms, no i've never broken someone's heart. at least, not that i know of.

53. Full house or Brady Bunch? full house!

54. Did you like your high school guidance counselor? meh.

55. Has anyone ever called you a tease? yeah, and they were right.

56. Do you have any scars? yup.

57. Relationships or one night stands? relationships.

58. Big red or Juicy fruit? i used to LOVE juicy fruit. but now a big chewer of minty gum. if i HAD to choose, i'd have to say big red.

59. Do you enjoy greasy food? yes, but earl doesn't like them at all. earl is my stomach.

60. Have you seen all the Rocky movies? nope, i haven't seen a single one.

61. Who was the last person that made you cry? myself.

wow

i'm with amanda ... this is a lot of craziness over a box. :) i mean, 14 comments worth of craziness. i REALLY hope you guys aren't too disappointed when i open my box of nerdiness.

tracking ups

alright, it took my packages 59.5 hours to get from hodgkins, illinois to my local ups distribution center. however, it only took the packages 3 MINUTES to be checked in for arrival & then be checked back out for delivery. so, officially, my boxes are on their way to my house. yay! of course, tonight's bead night so i won't get to open the packages until about 9:30 this evening. but that's okay. i'm pretty sure i'll be busting into 'em tonight anyhow & trying it all out. then i'll post pictures & you'll all know what i'm talking about.

you might not be as excited by it as i am, but you'll know what i'm talking about. :)

bead night

i also bought a length of silver chain at jo-anns (when i bought the big bird pelt). i've had these beads for awhile now and haven't been able to make them work. so i did a little wire wrapping, added in some chain links, and poof! a bracelet i think is cute. yay! it looks impossibly small, but it does fit around my wrist. it fits becca better than it fits me, so i figure that's a good sign. becca's smaller than i am, so she's good about trying on my jewelry & giving me that perspective.

i made a necklace, too. using the chain & some of the beads left over from my blue/green cube necklace. it's got a dangly glass pendant with green & blue streaks. it's very pretty, but i can't get a decent photo of it. so you'll just have to use your imagination.

e-mail? no ...

so i love e-mail. i mean, i really love it. some of you may question that since i'm pretty bad about sending e-mail ... but trust me, i love getting e-mail. so, of course, my e-mail client is set up to make noise whenever an e-mail comes in because i want to know right away. granted, a lot of time it's junk mail ... okay, most of the time it's junk mail ... but still, it might be a real e-mail, and the very thought is exciting to me.

however, i have GOT to stop getting excited about e-mail showing up right after i post a comment to my own blog. because, of course, i have my blog set up to e-mail me all the comments so i don't miss anything. so i respond to a comment someone left on my blog, and then my e-mail dings because i have a new e-mail. i get all excited because it might be real e-mail ... and no, it's just my own comment being e-mailed to me. *sigh* getting e-mail from yourself is not fun.

on the bright side, my ups packages have moved. apparently it takes 58.5 hours to go from ontario to hodgkins, illinois. my boxes left hodgkins, illinois 50 hours ago and haven't arrived anywhere else yet. hodkins, illinois, of course, is exactly one hour from my house.

ladies' night

tonight's (last night's, i suppose) ladies' night was another unphotographed success. we have such a good time together. a special thank you to those of you who aren't as crazy about "friends" as the rest of us are and agreed to let us play the 'scene it friends' game anyway - twice. i actually think my addiction to this should could be unhealthy ... but i like it so much i just don't care. :)

ladies' night also helped me accomplish making dinner for the month of march. we had pretzel-crusted chicken and homemade potato chips (white & sweet). yumm-o. i love pretzel-coated chicken. it's so crispy & crunchy & salty. mmmm. the potato chips were questionable. the sweet potatos fried up fairly well, but the white potatos fried inconsistently. some were nice & crispy. others were sad and soggy. our fryer doesn't go as high in temperature as was recommended for the white potatoes, so that could be part of the problem. but i wonder if i was also putting too many in at once & they were sticking together. i'm trying some fresh ones tomorrow for lunch, so i'll see what i can do to fix it.

i did make a successful dip or two for the chips though. a nice thick ranch & a kicky jalapeno/parmesan. and holly had the chocolate fountain going, so that was marvelous. are you ready for the list of things we dipped? we had strawberries, oranges, marshmallows, gummy bears, caramels, twinkies, rice krispie treats, chocolate chip cookies, pretzels, bananas ... we were on chocolate-dipped overload.

we also played the dvd version of 'clue' - which was a first for all of us. it took a while for us to get the hang of it, but it was fun. even if holly & i (we played teams) totally missed that we were supposed to be guessing what item was stolen from the victim - not what item was the weapon.

the third annual michelangelo project

so i regularly visit the french toast girl blog. i love reading her posts - she's so real, so honest, and her kids are simply adorable. AND she's so stinkin' artsy it's incredibly inspiring. seriously, go check it out. (erin - you'll want to especially read the post on packaging girlhood.)

this is her third year of coordinating the michelangelo project, and i'm encouraging you ALL to participate. that's right, every single one of you NEED to be creative on march 6. why? because it's good for all of us to spend a little time really focusing on creativity. not forcing it - but allowing it to have a place in our lives.

this is quoted from the french toast girl blog:

----------
March 6th is Michelangelo's birthday! To celebrate the birthday of one of the world's most inspiring artists, I invite you to participate in this project.



What you do:
1. Do something creative this Tuesday, March 6th. It can be something you love to do, something you've forgotten how to do, something you've never done and always secretly wanted to try. Here's your excuse! Some ideas are:
- paint/draw/collage
- sculpt (like the master)
- write a poem, a short story
- take a photo
- visit a museum or art gallery
- sew
- cook something exciting you've never made before
- see an art film, foreign film, or movie about an artist

2. Come back here and share your experience!
Post a link to your creation, write about your trip or creative process - share your creative story with others. How creative can we get? (There will be a special post Tuesday for you to post to.)

3. Link back with the above graphic if you've written about it on your site.

4. Have fun, for goodness' sake! This is not about being perfect or creating the best piece of art. It's about embracing your creative side in whatever form it happens to take.
----------

i participated two years ago with this post:

----------

in honor of michelangelo's birthday, in conjunction with the michelangelo project, and because i needed a good notebook to use at work - today i made my "top-secret, brown paper bag, string closure notebook". the inside is filled with paper we recently tossed at work. nothing like recycling paper into a new journal, and i'm a huge fan of having the vertical cyan lines on the pages. a couple of "x" eyelets to wrap the string closure around, and i have no worries of it accidently falling open in front of prying eyes. i love it. :)

the michelangelo project courtesy of french toast girl
----------

do something creative! it's good for you!

three years ago

this was my post from three years ago today. there was no text, just the photo. we were celebrating dr. seuss' 100th birthday. and nothing says happy birthday like a rice krispy cake. mmmm.

the onion

i have to say that reading The Onion is a really entertaining time for me. i don't do it often, but i love it. these folks are funny. and this article on frito-lay cracks me up. i had to share. with my advanced apologies to anyone sensative to the language.

ups rant

just a quickie to complain about ups. if my package was "departure scanned" at 1:18 a.m. on feb. 28 in ontario - why hasn't it moved yet? it can't take more than 2 full days for my two boxes to get from ontario to wherever they're going to shift it to a different truck. it can't. why waste all the time & effort having a tracking system if it's not accurate? i have the same beef with the usps tracking system. it will tell you when you dropped a package off at the post office and when it gets delivered (although that info actually shows up as much as 24 hours AFTER the recipient has the package). what good is that? i wanna know what good that stupid barcode on the top of the package is if they're not going to scan it every step of the way & feed that information to their online tracking site. i should know when it leaves the office i drop it off at. i should know when it reaches the regional post office. i should know when it leaves the regional post office. when it reaches the destination regional office. when it reaches the destination local office. and when it's delivered to the recipient. otherwise, why call it a tracking service? meh. my packages better be here on monday like they say. or else ... well... i'm gonna complain again.

80 things you might not know

Whats your middle name? renee.

How big is your bed? full.

What are you listening to right now? computer hum.

What are the last 4 digits in your cellphone number? -

Last person you hugged? my aunt kim, i think.

How is the weather right now? chilly & windy.

Who was the last person you talked to on the phone? kathy.

What is the first thing u notice in the opposite sex? eyes.

Favorite type of Food? cooked.

Do you drink? lots of water, no alcohol.

Ever get so drunk you don't remember the entire night? no.

Do you wear contacts/glasses? glasses, but i'm thinking of going back to contacts.

Favorite holiday? Christmas.

Have you ever cried over a girl/boy? of course. i remember a sunday school teacher telling us girls (maybe 5th grade? 6th grade?) that if we hadn't been up all night crying over a boy yet, we would be soon.

What books are you reading? none right now.

Piercings? i had my ears pierced twice - not two holes, but rather repierced after the first time closed up - but they're closed up now. i had my hand pierced, but it kept getting infected until it finally just fell out.

Favorite Movie? benny & joon.

Favorite Flower? daisies.

Have you ever loved someone? yes.

Who would you like to see right now? erin.

Do you like to travel by plane? it's alright.

If you could go to any place right now where would you go? the island cow.

Do you have a tattoo? nope.

Do you still watch cartoons on Saturday mornings? nope.

DID YOU GET ENOUGH SLEEP LAST NIGHT? yes (why did these switch to all caps?)

FIRST THING YOU THOUGHT ABOUT THIS MORNING? wow i feel really rested for only having been asleep for three hours ... man, i gotta pee.

WHAT DO YOU HAVE HANDY AT YOUR BEDSIDE? my slippers.

GRILLED OR FRIED? depends what it is.

WHAT MAKES YOU UNIQUE? my fingerprints. my dental records. my dna.

ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK? sometimes.

FAVORITE HANGOUT? i don't know that i have any "hangouts" anymore. becca's apartment for beading? holly's house for game nights?

3 THINGS YOU CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT? gum, chapstick, pizza.

FAVORITE SONG? ticklepenny corner's "she only wants her roses".

WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF? the guy across the street.

WHAT IS YOUR DADS MIDDLE NAME? monroe.

WHATS YOUR MOTHERS MIDDLE NAME? diane.

STUCK ON A DESERTED ISLAND & COULD TAKE ONE THING? camera.

FAVORITE T.V. COMMERCIAL? it's a cell phone commerical where the little brother lists his sister's friends as being in "his five" because her "friends are hot" and she gets all ticked & asks her parents if they're going to do anything. her dad says "maybe you should have uglier friends" and her mom nods in agreement.

WHO'S YOUR CELL PHONE PROVIDER? virgin.

FIRST THING YOU'LL SAVE IN A FIRE? myself.

WHAT ARE THE THINGS YOU ALWAYS TAKE WITH YOU? keys, wallet and my sense of humor.

WHAT DID YOU WANNA BE WHEN YOU WERE A KID? a veterinarian.

WHAT DO YOU USUALLY DO WHEN THE CLOCK TURNS 11:11? think "wow, i used to make a wish at 11:11".

THE COLOR OF YOUR BEDSHEETS? off white with brown designs.

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT BEFORE YOU GO TO BED? cuddling up with some cute guy. :) sounds pretty good, i'll go do that now. the thinking ... not the actual cuddling. unless you know something about my bed that i don't know.

surveys rock

You:
1. A cuddler? yes.
2. A morning person? if i get enough sleep &/or have a good reason.
3. Are you a perfectionist? a lot of the time, yes.
5. Religious? i just don't like the word religious.
6. In your pajamas? yes.
7. Left handed? no.

Last:
1. Friend you saw: my mom.
3. Sent text: never have.
4. Received text: from my wireless provider.
5. Message over myspace: never.
6. Instant message: it's been a LONG time. oh wait, jonathan & laure, i guess.

Today:
1. Wore: my reeboks, a pink sock, a brown sock with pink flowers, jeans, underwear, pink top, bra, deodorant, glasses, skull and crossbones headband.
2. Last Night was: a good sleeping night.
3. Today is: over as soon as i quit answering surveys.
4. Got any plans: going to bed. :)

Favorite:
1. Number: 3.
2. Color: green.
3. Season: spring.

Currently:
1. Missing: the skin on my right thumb.
2. Needing: to make out a grocery list for ladie's night.
3. Wanting: an ice cream sandwich.

q: What was the 1st thing you did this morning?
A: looked at the clock.

q: Last thing you ate:
a: a yellow peep.

q: Do you have anything bothering you?
a: my right thumb hurts when i type.

q: What's the last movie you saw?:
a: i have no idea. i wanna say "bench warmers", but i know i've seen movies since then. oh yeah! "the devil wears prada", we pay-per-viewed it right after we watched "little miss sunshine".

q: Do you wish upon stars?
a: no and i've never seen a shooting star.

q: Are you a friendly person?:
a: people say i am.

q: Where did you sleep last night?:
a: under my covers.

q: What color shirt are you wearing?:
a: red. it matched my flannel Christmas 'jama pants.

q: Do you have more guy or girl friends?
a: girl.

q: When was the last time you really cried?
a: a couple of sundays ago.

q: What was your last thought before you went to sleep last night?
a: wow, i'm going to bed early.

q: If you could drink anything right this second, what would it be?
a: a root beer float!

q: What's your favorite month(s)?
a: oh, i'm an equal opportunity month lover.

q: What was your elementary schools mascot?
a: lion.

q: What's your favorite bottled water?
a: ice mountain.

q: What were you doing at 9pm last night?
a: posting to my blog.

q: Did you attend your high school prom?
a: yes, my senior year.

q: Did you go to someone else's prom?
a: no, no, no.

q: Do you prefer coffee or tea?
a: neither.

q: Something red within 5 feet?
a: my shirt.

q: Ever done the electric slide?
a: not very well.

q: How much French do you know?
a: enough to get me into trouble, probably.

q: Ever crash a car, been in an accident?
a: yes.

q: Do you look good in yellow?
a: acceptable enough that i wear it.

q: Do you sing?
a: yes.

q: Ever sing in public?
a: when i was like 5 i sang a duet with my sister in church.

q: Least favorite color?
a: bright yellow when people put it on cars.

q: Ever had dippin dots?
a: no.

q: How many driving tickets have you had?
a: none.

q: Do you own your house?
a: no.

q: At what age do you want to get married?
a: i have no idea. i believe my past ponderings on this subject say it should happen between january 1 & january 23 of 2008. that would make me 28. and within a year of being married.

q: Have you ever been married?
a: no.

q: How many kids do you have/want?
a: i'm not a place where i want any right now.

q: Do you like anyone right now?
a: no, i pretty much hate the whole world. yes, i like some people right now! sheesh.

my past

i was totally going to bed early tonight. instead i'm doing these surveys.

Name?: becky. (hey - it says "my past" ... and EVERYONE called me becky growing up. some people still do & i like that.)

What elementary school did you go to?: jane ball

What grades did it go through?: k-5

How old were you when you started going there?: 5

Who was your first friend(s)?: i remember talking with danielle jen in kindergarten ... but my first friend was erin.

Are you still friends with them?: yes. and for that i am extremely grateful.

Did any of your friends ever move away?: yes.

If so who?: the first one i remember moving away was mary arhendt (i have no idea if that's spelled right) - she left in elementary school. and then media hicks ... or maybe she moved away before mary. and adrienne mckinney - though i don't remember if we were still friends when she left or not. and jennifer kovacs ... she went to italy. and ... seriously, am i supposed to name them all? because once i graduated college, there was a lot of moving around going on.

And where?: kankakee, no idea, west somewhere, and italy. respectively.

Do you miss them?: i'd like to see jennifer again. we were friends for a long time.

Do you still keep in touch with them?: nope.

Girls did you play with Barbies?Boys did you play with Action figures?: yes. my sister indulged me by playing barbies with me long after she had grown out of them. our barbies were the parents & teachers of all our cabbage patch kid miniatures. skipper was their older sister because, you know, she was smaller than barbie.

When did you realize you didn't want to play with them anymore?: i don't know.

Did you ever get a time out?: i remember being sent to my room once. and the doorbell rang & i wanted to know who was at the door. so i came out of my room & my brother tattled on me, but my mom told him that was fine as long as i could behave myself. take that, tattling brother!

Did you play with mostly all your classmates?: no. i never had a lot of friends in elementary school. i had more in junior high & high school ... but still, i didn't play with everyone. i didn't like everyone.

Did you like all your teachers?: i didn't like my fifth grade teacher very much.

Did you have a nickname(s) at school?: whittle. my elementary school gym teacher had nicknames for everyone - usually based on their last names. he used them when we played "trouble".

Did you and your friends ever make any games up?: i think "frozen tortillas" is a game. so is "marshmellows on a front porch" and "bread on wet lawn". not to mention "confetti jelly beans" or "freaked out by a trip wire".

Did you play dress up?: not that i remember. i had a ballerina costume that i remember wearing around the house a little.

Did you play with legos?: not when i was little.

Did you play with lincoln logs?: some, yeah.

Did you play house?: not really. i played school at my grandma's house on holidays.

Did you play Tag?: not much. i was the fat kid who couldn't run away fast enough - so it's not really playing.

Did you collect Beanie Babys?: my grandma thought i did.

Furbys?: no.

Pogs?: not that i know of.

Pokemon cards?: no.

Did you have a Gameboy?: no, but i wanted one.

Did you play with Polly pocket: no.

Ninja turtles?: jonathan & i used to spend LOTS of quarters on the ninja turtle game at wilco. you could have four people playing - one for each turtle - it was fabulous.

My Little Ponies?: yes.

Tamagotchi?: no.

Did you watch Barney?: no, but i'm quoted in one of my high school yearbooks about dreaming of killing barney.

Power Rangers?: no, i never wanted to kill them.

Pokemon?: no.

Sesame street?: yes.

Mega man?: no.

Pinky and the Brain?: YES! i love the animaniacs! they're pinky, they're pinky and the brain, brain, brain, brain, brain!

Did you like Britney spears?: no.

Nsync?: no.

Backstreet boys?: no.

New kids on the block?: no.

Dream street?: no.

Spice girls?: no.

O-town?: no.

98 Degrees?: no.

Did you play with Wagons?: apparently not often enough for it to stick out in my head.

Jump ropes?: i hated jump ropes. remember - fat kid, not a jumper.

Hula hoops?: no.

Scooters?: no.

Bikes?: yeah. we used to take them with us camping. i almost ran a kid over once.

Skip its?: no.

Did you wear Overalls?: probably. i know i had a big bird two-piece bathing suit once when i was little.

Skorts?: oh yes, i loved them.

Fanny packs?: probably.

Did you do the hokey pokey?: yeah. it makes me think of my uncle larry.

The Macarena?: no.

Did you sing Twinkle twinkle little star?: yes.

Rockabye Baby Rockabye baby?: yes.

Candyland?: yes.

Sorry?: yes!

Battleship?: yes.

Guess Who?: no.

Trouble?: yes.

Clue?: not until i was in college. joe was the first person i played it with.

Did you play with playdoh: mostly at school. mom wasn't a fan of it being in the carpet. at school we used it to play restaurant during indoor recess.

Cartoon network?: nope.

Did you have a Sega Saturn?: nope.

Did you play Mother may I?: yes.

Red rover?: yes.

Did you solve things with eeny-meeny-miney-moe?: yes. now i just use paper, rock, scissors.

Did you like Swings?: yes!

Did you read Goosebumps?: no, but i did read some of his teen horror series "fear street"

Did you ever say "Talk to the hand"?: of course.

Did you have a Super Soaker?: yes.

Did you have In-Line Skates?: no, no, no. i didn't skate.

Did you have Lisa Frank stuff?: yes!

Did you have any Sky Dancers?: no.

Did you like Madeline?: not especially, but i didn't dislike her either.

Did you say Wazzup?: sure. i'd try anything to be cool.

What about As if!?: yes.

What about Whatever....?: yes.

Or did you do the whatever with your hands?: oh yeah.

Did you say I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you?: yes.

Did you play Tomb Raider?: no.

Did you watch Keenan & Kel?: no.

What about All That?: no.

Do you miss those days?: eh, sometimes.